Truman Capote Introduction
Some famous interpretations examples of Capote’s literary works:
Capote Trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mvZq4sbyR_w
In Cold Blood Trailer (1967): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7IL-4wAzVCg&feature=related
Breakfast at Tiffany’s Trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=urQVzgEO_w8
What happened on this date?
October 29, 1929
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The Great Depression
Began in October 29, 1929, yet not the worst crash in history, but one
that toppled the US economy.
o The entire stock market lost about 12% of its value, which is a lot
What are stocks?
o They are tiny pieces of a company, called “shares” that are sold to
generate money for the company
o These shares are traded between people and supply and demand of
certain stocks makes the price go up and down
o In 1929 the price of all of the stocks in market went down quickly so
quickly the people who keep track of prices could not keep up
So, what happened?
o Farm income fell by 50% so if your family was living on a farm and
it generated $10,000 a year in profit, you now had to live on only
$5,000
o Factories closed, banks (who also invested in the stock market)
closed and the people whose money was being kept in those banks
was lost
o Why? Because banks don’t keep everyone’s money all at the same
time they take a little from one customer to give to another and vice
versa
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o Soon, 25% of the country was without work compared to 4-5% today
So there were traveling workers who sought work in states other than
their own – a “tinker”
There were long lines to wait for work
People where very poor
President Franklin D. Roosevelt (FDR) –Democrat – won his election
bid because country blamed Hoover/republicans for Depression
FDR tried to inspire the country by giving his “The only thing to fear is
fear itself” in his inaugural address
Soon he and his political allies constructed the New Deal which was a
set of legislation that brought us things like the Federal Deposit
Insurance Corporation (FDIC) which ensures that if the banks lose
money, you don’t lose yours
New Deal also brought ideas such as Social Security, and government
help for un employment
Roosevelt was and is loved by people who were poor and scared by the
depression
Historians claim that the Depression ended in 1939.
Prohibition was instated from 1920- 1930.
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What does prohibition mean? Prohibition is the legal prevention of the
manufacture, transportation and sale of alcoholic beverages, an extreme
law. People were convinced that alcohol was the cause of everything
evil, so why not get rid of it? There were supporters of this law and non
supporters.
Support came from a number of rural, religious, and business groups
these groups of people were so convinced that alcohol was the cause of
virtually all crime that, on the eve of Prohibition, some towns actually
sold their jails.
Because of prohibition and people still wanting and needing alcohol.
There was a widespread disrespect for law. New York City alone had
about thirty thousand (yes, 30,000) speakeasies. Speakeasies were
illegal places to obtain liquor. The speakeasies got there name because
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one had to whisper a code word or name through a slot in a locked door
to gain admittance. People who made alcohol for speakeasy were
known as bootleggers and bootleggers made alcohol in homes, barns,
buildings where they could. Bootleggers where know for making what
is called "Bathtub gin", it got its name from the fact that alcohol,
glycerin and juniper juice was mixed in bottles or jugs too tall to be
filled with water from a sink tap so they were commonly filled under a
bathtub tap. Bill McCoy was a bootlegger well known for selling
quality imported goods: the original "real McCoy."
Because the smuggling of alcohol could not be prevented, and the illicit
manufacture of liquor sprang up with such rapidity that authorities were
unable to suppress it. There followed a period of unparalleled illegal
drinking (often of inferior and dangerous beverages) and lawbreaking.
In 1933 the Twenty-first Amendment, repealing prohibition, was
ratified and it was no longer illegal to have, or sell alcohol.
Movies
In the 1930's the motion pictures were the most important entertainment
of The Great Depression. The cost of a movie at this time, 10 cents
that’s right only a dime. Everyone was going to the theaters for some
entertainment. During the depths of the Depression in the early thirties
and average of 60 million to 75 million movie tickets were bought each
week. Movies helped people forget their troubles. Many famous movies
that we know came out of the great depression, such as The Wizard of
Oz, the Three Stooges and Shirley Temple lifted America's depression
spirits with The Little Colonel, Curly Top, and Heidi. For a long time
during The Great Depression movies were an escape from the
Depression's reality. You might have an extra dime one day, so you'd
go to the movies. While the reality of the Depression seemed
inescapable, this short trip to a faraway land was the thing to do.
In Conclusion
The reason we are studying this is because Capote wanted to write stories that are based on real events even though
they’re fictional. The story your about to read is based on an experience Capote had, but has been fictionalized to make it
a better story. Keep in mind what you’ve learned here today and as you read try to picture yourself in the story.
Truman Capote
About the Author
Failure is the condiment that gives success its flavor.
–Capote
Throughout his career, Truman Capote remained one of America’s most controversial and colorful authors,
combining literary genius with a penchant for the glittering world of high society. Though he wrote only a
handful of books, his prose styling was impeccable, and his insight into the psychology of human desire was
extraordinary. His flamboyant and well-documented lifestyle has often overshadowed his gifts as a writer, but
over time Capote’s work will outlive the celebrity.
Born in New Orleans in 1924, Capote was abandoned by his mother and raised by his elderly aunts and
cousins in Monroeville, Alabama. As a child he lived a solitary and lonely existence, turning to writing for
solace. Of his early days Capote related, ―I began writing really sort of seriously when I was about eleven. I say
seriously in the sense that like other kids go home and practice the violin or the piano or whatever, I used to go
home from school every day and I would write for about three hours. I was obsessed by it.‖
In his mid-teens, Capote was sent to New York to live with his mother and her new husband. Disoriented by life
in the city, he dropped out of school, and at age seventeen, got a job with The New Yorker magazine. Within a
few years he was writing regularly for an assortment of publications. One of his stories, ―Miriam,‖ attracted the
attention of publisher Bennett Cerf, who signed the young writer to a contract with Random House. Capote’s
first book, Other Voices, Other Rooms, was published in 1948. Other Voices, Other Rooms received instant
notoriety.
With literary success came social celebrity. The young writer was lionized by the high society elite, and was
seen at the best parties, clubs, and restaurants. He answered accusations of frivolousness by claiming he was
researching a future book. His short novel, Breakfast at Tiffany’s (1958), took much of its inspiration from these
experiences. With the publication of Breakfast at Tiffany’s and the subsequent hit film starring Audrey Hepburn,
Capote’s popularity and place among the upper crust was assured. His ambition, however, was to be great as
well as popular, and so he began work on a new experimental project that he imagined would revolutionize the
field of journalism.
In 1959, Capote set about creating a new literary genre — the non-fiction novel. In Cold Blood (1966), the book
that most consider his masterpiece, is the story of the 1959 murder of the four members of a Kansas farming
family, the Clutters. Capote left his jet-set friends and went to Kansas to delve into the small-town life and
record the process by which they coped with this loss. During his stay, the two murderers were caught, and
Capote began an involved interview with both. For six years, he became enmeshed in the lives of both the
killers and the townspeople, taking thousands of pages of notes. Of In Cold Blood, Capote said, ―This book
was an important event for me. While writing it, I realized I just might have found a solution to what had always
been my greatest creative quandary. I wanted to produce a journalistic novel, something on a large scale that
would have the credibility of fact, the immediacy of film, the depth and freedom of prose, and the precision of
poetry.‖ In Cold Blood sold out instantly, and became one of the most talked about books of its time. An instant
classic, In Cold Blood brought its author millions of dollars and a fame unparalleled by nearly any other literary
author since.
To celebrate the book’s success, Capote threw what many called the ―Party of the Century,‖ the famous ―Black
and White Ball.‖ This masked ball, at New York’s elegant Plaza Hotel, was to be the pinnacle of both his
literary endeavors and his popularity. Overwhelmed by the lifestyles of the rich and famous, Capote began to
work on a project exploring the intimate details of his friends. He received a large advance for a book which
was to be called Answered Prayers (after Saint Theresa of Avila’s saying that answered prayers cause more
tears than those that remain unanswered). The book was to be a biting and largely factual account of the
glittering world in which he moved. The publication of the first few chapters in Esquire magazine in 1975
caused a major scandal. Columnist Liz Smith explained, ―He wrote what he knew, which is what people always
tell writers to do, but he just didn’t wait till they were dead to do it.‖
With these first short publications Capote found that many of his close friends and acquaintances shut him off
completely. Though he claimed to be working on Answered Prayers (which many imagined would be his
greatest work), the shock of the initial negative reactions sent him into a spiral of drug and alcohol use, during
which time he wrote very little of any quality. When Capote died in 1984, at the age of fifty-nine, he left behind
no evidence of any continued progress on Answered Prayers. Though many feel that Capote did not live up to
the promise of his early work, it is clear from what he did write that he was an artist of exquisite talent and
vision. With both his fiction and his non-fiction, he created a body of work that will continue to move readers
and inspire writers for years.
Source: http://www.pbs.org/wnet/americanmasters/episodes/truman-capote/introduction/58/